Can Excessive PC Gaming Stunt Your Growth?

[Physics_wiz]

I got into computer games about 4 years ago. I was 15 back then and I wasn't relatively short. As years went on, it seemed like most people around me were getting taller and my height was unchanged. This bothered me a lot but I looked closer and I noticed that the ones who spent their free time in front of a computer are relatively shorter than the rest and that I wasn't short compared to them. Since then I kept trying to notice if this is really the case and I found that it looks true.

Usually, PC games involve sleeping late. Almost everyone I know who played slept relatively late. Some people took a nap after school and some didn't, but we all slept pretty late. I know some guys who played the games straight for 6+ hours without stopping. Some played the whole night over the weekends and then played the next day, which really screws up their sleeping habits. Usually they were too busy to get food or drink because the game won't wait for them. Could that have stunned their growth? Would concentrating on one thing for many hours every day have any effect on your growth rate?

Now, I know that it can just be that I was just destined to stop growing at 15 or grow a lot slower after 15 or something, but do PC games really have nothing to do with it? I could also be mistaking cause and effect, and I know that my sample size is too small, but do the habits involved with video games affect growth in any way? Could it be that shorter people find it harder to socialize and just stay home and play games and that's why it appears that they are relatively short?

 

[Moonbear]

Almost everyone I know who played slept relatively late. Some people took a nap after school and some didn't, but we all slept pretty late. I know some guys who played the games straight for 6+ hours without stopping. Some played the whole night over the weekends and then played the next day, which really screws up their sleeping habits. Usually they were too busy to get food or drink because the game won't wait for them. Could that have stunned their growth?

Insufficient rest and nutrition can reduce your growth rate. It might be possible to catch up when nutrition is restored to more adequate levels, but might not, depending on age and whether the epiphyseal plates in the long bones, which allow for growth, have fused yet.

Could it be that shorter people find it harder to socialize and just stay home and play games and that's why it appears that they are relatively short?

That is also a possibility, that those who are of shorter stature or less physically fit would be more inclined to play PC games rather than participate in more physical activities.

 

[neurocomp2003]

mmm i doubt its PC games but the general behavioural pattern(posture/food/hours etc) that is accompanied with teh likes of PC gaming. However I also know a lot of people 6'2+ who play games.

And i don't think its that shorter people find it harder to socialize...because you could find hyoourself withing a group of "short" people ...
i'd like to think that its the way you relate to the environment in which you grew up in...especially the way you perceive how your parents interact with others and the way they interact with you...

Just imagine if you became accustomt o playing PC games hanging upsidedown from a chinup bar.

 

[The_Professional]

Insufficient rest and nutrition can reduce your growth rate. It might be possible to catch up when nutrition is restored to more adequate levels, but might not, depending on age and whether the epiphyseal plates in the long bones, which allow for growth, have fused yet.

doesn't growth stop at around 21 years for males